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On April 10, 1944, the Germans who had the job of manning defensive positions in the Italian mountains found a new American outfit deployed against them—the 85th Division. It had been called the “Custer” Division ever since 1917, when its soldiers trained at Camp Custer, Michigan. By the time the 85th had bowled over the enemy defenders of the Gustav Line, of Rome, of the Amo River, of the Gothic Line, of the Po River, and of the Brenner Pass, far to the north, the Germans had a new name for the outfit.
They called it the “Elite Assault” Division.
In this war, there wasn’t any Custer’s Last Stand. Time after time the 85th found itself fighting against seemingly hopeless odds—and there were a few units that had bad luck, like the platoon that was found wiped out, with German bodies piled up all around it, during the breaching of the Gustav Line—but the Division kept on moving slowly forward during the long, grim, and sometimes heartbreaking Italian campaign. When it added up its prisoners after the Germans surrendered on May 2, 1945, the total came to 27,429.
The 85th began to arrive in Italy in the middle of March 1944, and by the end of the month the Division was assembled as a unit. Two weeks later it took over the Allied sector near Mintumo and found itself playing a prominent part in the Allied offensive to break through the Gustav Line, made contact with our forces hemmed in at Anzio, and raced to Rome. The attack began on May 11, and after four days of bitter initiation to war, the 85th had beaten off numerous counterattacks and had cracked the line. Speeding north, the Division trampled over the famed Hermann Goering Panzer Division, and triumphantly entered Rome on June 4. The 85th went right on oüt the other side of the city and pursued the Germans for 40 miles before being relieved.
The Custermen had it relatively quiet during the summer, but in mid-September they were given the job of hacking away at the German positions in the Gothic Line. The towering mountains at Altuzzo, Verruca, and Pratone were in their sector, and on September 17 Altuzzo, the keystone of the line, had fallen to the 85th. Speeding on to the north, the Division chased the Germans for 45 days of running fighting, through the Santemo River Valley, across many mountains, and onto the slopes of Monte Mezzano, at the threshold of the Po Valley.
Early in 1945, the 85th held the Monte Grande sector of the winter defense line, with a crack German parachute division facing it. The stalemate was broken on April 18 when the Custer men swept through Gesso, Tignano, and Casalecchio, advanced into the Po plain, and dashed pell mell through disorganized enemy formations. The 85th flung itself across the Po River, though no bridges were available in its sector, on rafts, DUKWs, and anything else that would float. It moved quickly through Verona, crossed the now unoccupied Adige Line—last German defensive position in Italy—slashed into the Alps, and, by sealing off the Brenner Pass, trapped the remnants of the German Tenth Army, who surrendered en masse.
Even after the Germans gave up, the 85th wasn’t through. Its men uncovered millions of dollars’ worth of gold and valuable works of art, and released from imprisonment a group of international celebrities the Germans had hidden at Lago di Braies, in the Alps, including Martin Niemôller, Leon Blum, Kurt Schuschnigg, and Fritz Thyssen.
From Fighting Divisions, Kahn & McLemore, Infantry Journal Press, 1945-1946.
